Shabbat Parashat Tazria Metzora 5786

Moreshet Shaul: Character Refinement – part IV

We continue to see Rav Yisraeli’s practical ideas on education, this time focusing on Torah education.

We now take the step to the matter of Torah and mitzvot. Education for Torah in the Jewish People was never a secondary pursuit; it was always the most basic foundation in life. In the cradle, they put children to sleep with lullabies about Torah. It is told about R. Yehoshua ben Chananya (Yerushalmi, Yevamot 1:6) that his mother would take him at a very early age to the beit midrash in order that his ears should pick up the words of Torah. People’s ideal was the Torah scholar. Their derogatory image was of one who was ignorant of Torah. If one of the group of students of Torah emerged as a Torah authority, then his thousand peers who started the process of scholarship did not end up ignorant. Parents would take their children to the teacher for the first time wrapped in a tallit, and they would make a real celebration. Torah was something that was truly loved.

A child who would see this in his father, spending his free time on Torah study. It would awaken the child’s desire to learn, and he would imitate his father. One should not think that the child will receive this desire if he sees that his father never opens up a book, and if he does not see his father’s dedication for scholarship. People complain that their children have no connection to books, that they cannot sit with a serious book and read it, and that most students do not finish school. They forget that, first and foremost, the parents are to blame, as the children did not see in their actions the affection for the world of books.

The world of books is just a representative example of what the child sees about the place of knowledge and wisdom in his life. For us, this is what we live for, and we need to inculcate this affection and thereby give it over to our children in a manner that it stays with them. This is critical so that they do not become overly connected to things that are a waste of time, such as thinking that football is the greatest aspiration and that kicking a ball into the net is the most important thing one can do.

A friend told me about a nice practice – every time he and the family eat, he learns a portion of Torah. This is very important so that his child will see that what the child is being told to do is not a special obligation for him but it is something that everyone needs to do. The way our lives are lived now, it is worthwhile that the mother is also involved in the study. It is an entirely good idea that every supper should include a study of the Torah portion of the week.

It is important, although not to the same degree, that the parents take interest in what the children are studying in school. It is not enough to ensure that the child is doing his homework. It is worthwhile that when he returns home from school, the mother or father will hear what he learned that day. Similarly, an oral test on the week’s material is important.

Whoever has memories from yeshiva should tell them to the child, and in so doing excite him about his future as a yeshiva student. It is crucial to stress over and over the importance of his continuing to study at the older ages of yeshiva students, and to describe this as the ideal.

We will conclude this topic next week.

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